Abstract [en]

The environment is our common asset, and it is both our common right and obligation to use it in a careful way. Sweden has, since the adoption of the Environmental Act in January 1999, practiced the supervision by this act. This as a part of the work towards sustainable development. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how environmental supervision is perceived by companies and environmental inspectors and what effects it may have on the companies. It will also be investigated if or how long term experience of supervisions can affect the companies attitude and methods of working. Document analysis and interviews have been the basis for conducting the survey. Three inspectors and six companies have been visited and interviewed. The document analysis consisted of analyzing the previous inspection logs and this then laid the foundation for the interview questions. The results show that both inspectors and companies are relatively satisfied with the supervision conducted. A certain difference can be seen in terms of previous experience of inspections which those who had had small, irregular or no supervision earlier found the experience of supervision as more worrying than the companies that have had extensive experience of supervision.